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| "Arkansas' Voice on the Internet" | Previous Features / Investigations |
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 Panel suggests mixed terms for young offenders RAY PIERCE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE A governor's task force subcommittee will recommend making children as young as 10 eligible to receive time in adult prisons for murder convictions. The legal subgroup of the Governor's Working Group on Juvenile Justice met Friday and accepted juvenile judges' proposal to allow youths to be transferred to the Department of Correction at 21 if the juvenile justice doesn't rehabilitate them. Connie Hickman Tanner, juvenile courts coordinator for the Administrative Office of the Courts and chairman of the legal subcommittee, said her group voted to include blended sentences in the working group's recommendations to the governor. She said the group will resolve details Aug. 19. Gov. Mike Huckabee assembled the working group after the March 24 shootings at Westside Middle School near Jonesboro. Westside students Natalie Brooks, Paige Ann Herring, Stephanie Johnson and Britthney Varner and teacher Shannon Wright were killed in the ambush. Ten others were wounded. Two boys, 12 and 13, are charged in the shootings. An Aug. 11 hearing is set for the boys in Jonesboro. The group will recommend juvenile-code amendments to Huckabee, who may include them in next year's legislative agenda. The four subcommittees are to have their reports ready to be assembled and presented to the governor by August or September. In blended sentencing a child convicted of a crime in juvenile court spends part of his sentence in the Youth Services Division and transfers to the adult system if he is not ready for release. In Arkansas, youths judged delinquent for major crimes generally don't stay in state custody past their 18th birthday. The law allows for children as young as 14 to be tried in circuit court for a few serious crimes. Under the plan juvenile court would have sole authority over those 15 or younger accused of crimes. Tanner said the recommendation would allow children 10 to 13 to receive adult sentences in juvenile court for capital murder and first- or second-degree murder. Youths 14 and 15 could receive blended sentences for more crimes. Prosecutors could recommend a blended sentence for a delinquent youth in juvenile court, Tanner said. But judges would decide whether to move 14- to 15-year-olds' cases to adult court. That discretion now rests with prosecutors. Tanner said juvenile judges can better decide that because they know the child's history. In a blended sentence, the adult part would be suspended as long as the youth doesn't violate his juvenile sentence and has rehabilitated. If still in state custody, a child would receive an automatic hearing six months before his 21st birthday to determine whether to transfer his case to circuit court. If the child is accused of murder but admits to or is convicted of a lesser crime, a blended sentence wouldn't be imposed, Tanner said. The recommendation also would give courts authority over releasing children from Youth Services. The law now allows the Youth Services Division to release children. The recommendation also would let youths designated for a blended sentence have a jury trial in juvenile court. Now, they don't have that right, Tanner said. "That's a major change from current law," she said. The proposal will likely come up during the Legislature's regular session, which starts in January. Even if the governor's task force doesn't adopt the recommendation, juvenile judges likely will draft their own legislation, Tanner said. This article was published on Saturday, July 25, 1998 Copyright, permissions and privacy policy Copyright © 2008, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. All rights reserved. This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. |
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